Here's a quick cut of budget numbers to use the existing
cable plant. A few assumtions, which are most likely
wrong:
1. We can take over the plant from the current owner
at no cost. If the current owner sees potential for
a profit he'll most likely want in :)
2. There are no historical liabilities. Mostly, I'd be
concerned about unpaid pole rentals.
3. Capital is amortized over 3 years at 10%. No idea
what money would cost us, or even if we could borrow.
Is 3 years a reasonable time frame?
Okay, here we go....
The current system would need major upgrades. At a bare minimum there are
about 50 transformers to be replaced to "2 way". The plant has about
10km of line, and according to the last maint. fellow, most of it is "junk".
Money goes fast here ... but let's be optimistic and say we can do the works
for 20,000.00.
A "head unit" to handle the ISP translations/connections to the NetBC line
will cost about 10,000.00.
So, we have an initial outlay of 30K. Borrow for 36 months at 10% gives a
monthly payment of $968.00.
You don't hang cable on other peoples poles for free. The cable tv group
was paying over 300/month for the privilge. I doubt that the price will
go down, so let's be safe and say 400/month
We have to pay networkbc for the pipe. About 700/month (or more).
We have a business which needs to bill customers, pay bills, deal with
govts for GST, etc. The last secretary for the cable tv was getting
500/month and, according to her, was donating a lot of time. Lets
go with the 500 for now.
Maintenance: Trees fall down, connections get wet. And for most fixes
we'll need a lift up. Let's figure that the total for 50 subs
will be 750/month and for 100 will be 1000/month.
Wholesale ISP. We need to pay a ISP for mail/news/web hosting, etc.
Cost for this seems to be around 7.00 month.
Initial install. A cable modem is around $30 to $40. Plus, a bunch
of wire from the street, and some labor. Not a big deal, and it could
be an upfront charge. But, it's still a cost. Let's figure that
it totals out to 200 and we just divide it out over 24 months (people
die, move or just stop paying).
Total subs. 50 100
---------------------------------------------
Initial capital payback 19.36 9.68
Pole rental, 400/month 8.00 4.00
NetworkBC, 700/month 14.00 7.00
Sec/Office @ 500 10.00 5.00
Maint 750/50 1000/100 15.00 10.00
ISP 7.00 7.00
Install @ 200 over 24 mo. 8.34 8.34
------------------------------------------------------
Total monthly COST 81.70 51.02
Now, this is bare minimum cost. We still need to build in some
profit numbers to pay for future capital, a pad for the upfront
time when money is going out but nothing's coming it, a bad debt
buffer, costs for hardware hosting and hydro.
And, I really think that the 20,000 for initial capital upgrading is
low!
Anyone want to make a business case for this?